Five questions for J.P. Ruggiero, who makes his Southern California monster truck debut behind the wheel of the 10,000-pound El Diablo on Saturday as part of the annual smash 'em, crash 'em Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam.

Q. What does a monster truck newbie do to train?

A. It consists of some trainers in North Carolina who take you through the whole process because the truck isn't like every vehicle on the road. You don't turn a key to start it. Behind the wheel, I started with figure 8s around a couple cones, then they sped me up a little bit and had me run a small dirt jump. We slowly but surely ramped up all of the techniques.

Q. How does it feel to crush a car?

A. There's two sensations. First and foremost is, "Wow. I'm about to drive a vehicle over another vehicle." That's very strange. Secondly, once you hit that car in a monster truck, it's literally like hitting a brick wall. It really jars you.

Q. What does it to your body, physically?

A. As much as the suspension travel helps – it's up to 30 inches on some trucks – your body still takes a tremendous amount of shock. It's a very violent landing much of the time. We have custom seats and five-point harnesses. Most of us wear a head-restraint device that holds the helmet tight to the seat, but once you come to an abrupt stop, your skull is still traveling and has to compress the foam in the helmet, and your brain is still traveling inside your skull. You can easily come away with a headache or even worse: a mild concussion.

Q. You're a stunt man with an impressive résumé. You worked on the most recent "Spider-Man" and "Transformers." Why would you even want to do this?

A. Who wouldn't want to do this?

Q. What's the allure?

A. Challenging my mental and driving skills based on what the terrain has to offer. In monster truck driving, you have the dirt ramps over the car stacks to go over, but every single time a monster truck goes over a car it crushes it a little bit, so every time you go over that car it's different from being hit. The allure is the excitement of the change and the challenge of adapting to it.

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